Old Brewery Lane

Alley named for former business

July 26, 2014

According to an address directory, nobody lives on Old Brewery Lane-an old brick alley that cuts a quick jaunt between the back parking lot of the Campus Martius Museum and the middle of Central Sacra Via Park.

But a quick peek down the lane will reveal images that discredit that directory: a few flourishing porches, secluded driveways and a handful of front doors that look out onto the lane.

For the few residents who do, in spite of the address directory, live on Old Brewery Lane, their off-the-grid status can be either a blessing or a curse.

Article Photos

JASMINE ROGERS The Marietta TimesLarry Proctor stands on his flourishing patio Wednesday afternoon. Though he is considered a Second Street resident, his home and others line Old Brewery Lane, a Marietta alley.

Built toward the very back of a Second Street lot, Proctor's home has an address from the numbered street, which runs parallel to the lane.

Oddly, the other few homes on the lane bear addresses for Sacra Via, which runs perpendicular to the alley on its southern end.

Fact Box

About Old Brewery Lane

Named for the brewery which was built at 613 Second St. around 1866 and operated until shortly after prohibition hit in 1919.

Approximately four residences have their main entrance on the alley.

The approximately 500 foot alley runs parallel to Front and Second streets between Sacra Via and St. Clair Street in Marietta.

Source: Times research.

Roy Campbell, 27, lives in one of those Sacra Via addresses.

While he is not sure how the homes were numbered, he says the odd pattern does make things complicated for visitors.

"Sometimes people can't find it easily," he explained.

Other than that, Campbell has no complaints about alley living.

"It's quiet, until someone walks up and down the alley. Then the dogs start barking," he said.

Life in the alley is mostly quiet, agreed Proctor, who has lived in the spot nearly 15 years.

"There's a window in every room. It's rather private," he said listing a few of his home's favorite features.

The alley also offers proximity to many of the things Proctor enjoys.

"It's very nice living in the city, close to downtown. We can walk anywhere and there are parks on both ends," he said.

There is some extra traffic from the nearby doctor's office, admits Proctor.

The parking lot at First Settlement Orthopedics connects with the alley in a couple of places.

In fact, the office, surgery center and physical therapy location was built on the alley's namesake, a mid-19th century brewery, the bones of which still exist in First Settlement Physical Therapy.

"They preserved what I think is the ice house or the cooling room. It's a vaulted, cut-stone room...It's really worth a look," explained Marietta resident Jann Adams, whose great-grandfather was president of the brewery at one point.

The Union Brewery was founded sometime between 1866 and 1876, and became the Marietta Brewery in 1898 when it transfered hands to Adams' ancestor, August V. Kuehn, along with two other German immigrants, Jacob Epple and William Feller.

The brewery produced between 8,000 to 12,000 barrels of brewery a year and continued producing beer for Parkersburg and other surrounding communities when Marietta passed its own prohibition in 1908, Adams said.

The national prohibition, started in 1919, eventually dealt the brewery its fatal blow. But the city has honored the brewery's place in history by naming the alley in its honor, said Marietta Mayor Joe Matthews.